John William Bricker (September 6, 1893March 22, 1986) was an American politician and attorney who served as a

United States senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

and the 54th governor of Ohio. He was also the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

nominee for

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

. Born in Madison County, Ohio, Bricker attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and began a legal practice in Columbus, Ohio. He also served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He held various public offices between 1920 and 1937, including the position of

Ohio Attorney General The Ohio Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Ohio in the United States. The office is filled by general election, held every four years. The Ohio Attorney General is Republican Dave Yost. History The office of the attor ...

. Bricker served three terms as Governor of Ohio from 1939 to 1945. Bricker was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944. He was Thomas E. Dewey's running mate on the Republican ticket in the 1944 election, campaigning against the New Deal and President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's judicial nominees. The Republican ticket was defeated by the Democratic ticket of Roosevelt and

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. Bricker won election to the Senate in 1946. He introduced the

Bricker Amendment The Bricker Amendment is the collective name of a number of slightly different proposed amendments to the United States Constitution considered by the United States Senate in the 1950s. None of these amendments ever passed Congress. Each of them ...

, which would have limited the president's power to make treaties. Though the Bricker Amendment received support from some members of both parties, it was not passed by Congress. Bricker won re-election in 1952 but was narrowly defeated by Stephen M. Young in 1958. After leaving office, Bricker resumed the practice of law and died in 1986.

Early life and education

Bricker was born on a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

near Mount Sterling in Madison County in south central

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He was the son of Laura (née King) and Lemuel Spencer Bricker. He attended

at Columbus, where he divided his time between the debating team, the varsity

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team, and the Delta Chi Fraternity. After graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from Ohio State in 1916 and from its

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

school in 1920, he was admitted to the bar in 1917 and began his legal practice in Columbus in 1920.

Public service

During

, Bricker served as

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

and chaplain in the

in 1917 and 1918. He was subsequently the solicitor for Grandview Heights, Ohio, from 1920 to 1928, assistant Attorney General of Ohio from 1923 to 1927, a member of the

Public Utilities Commission of Ohio The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is the public utilities commission of the U.S. state of Ohio, charged with the regulation of utility service providers such as those of electricity, natural gas, and telecommunications as well as railr ...

from 1929 to 1932, and

Attorney General of Ohio The Ohio Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Ohio in the United States. The office is filled by general election, held every four years. The Ohio Attorney General is Republican Dave Yost. History The office of the attor ...

from 1933 to 1937. He was elected governor for three two-year terms, serving from 1939 to 1945, each time winning with a greater margin of victory. Bricker espoused a stance against centralized government, preferring to increase involvement in state and local governments, and made this known in his inaugural address as Governor: Bricker was the

Republican nominee for vice president, running with presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York who was nine years Bricker's junior. The Republicans lost handily to the Democratic ticket of

and

. In that campaign, Bricker proved to be a tireless campaigner, visiting thirty-one states and making 173 speeches, including 28 over a six-day period. His final remarks came on radio on election eve from the governor's office in Columbus, when he declared: "Not only has the New Deal depleted our resources, recklessly spent our money, but it has undermined the very spiritual foundations of our government." Though most of his campaigning was in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

, the Midwest, and the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, Bricker even visited the then-historically and -heavily Democratic state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, where in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, he called Franklin Roosevelt "a front for the Hillman-

Browder Browder may refer to: People * Andrew Browder (1931–2019), American mathematician *Aurelia Browder (1919–1971), African-American civil rights activist *Ben Browder (born 1962), American actor and writer *Bill Browder (born 1964), Hermitage Cap ...

Communist Party," referring to the respective leaders of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the

Communist Party of the United States of America The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

.David Jordan, p. 295 In 1946, Bricker was elected to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. He was re-elected in 1952, serving from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1959. Governor Dewey was the Republican presidential nominee again in 1948, but Senator Bricker was not his running mate. Dewey chose instead

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Earl Warren of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in the hope that the 1948 ticket would carry California, which the Dewey-Bricker ticket had failed to do. The Dewey-Warren ticket also lost California, and the absence of Bricker on the second ticket may have been a factor in Dewey's failure to win Bricker's home state of Ohio again. Bricker campaigned with Warren in 1944 in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, where Bricker attacked the politics of war-time

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

; then in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Bricker charged that Roosevelt had packed the U.S. judiciary with

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

jurists hostile to the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

. However, even if Dewey had carried both California and Ohio in 1948, the two large states would have been insufficient to elect him President in that second campaign. Bricker's Senate service is best remembered for his attempts to amend the United States Constitution to limit the President's

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pe ...

-making powers (the

). He was the chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce during the 83rd Congress. On July 12, 1947, a former Capitol police officer, William Louis Kaiser, fired shots at Senator Bricker as he boarded the underground subway from the Senate office building to the Capitol. The two shots, fired at close range, narrowly missed their target. Kaiser stated he was "trying to refresh" Bricker's memory. Kaiser had served on the police force as a protege of Bricker's predecessor in the Senate and had complained of losing substantial money on Columbus real estate. An investigation concluded that Kaiser may have fired blanks or else purposely missed Bricker. Bricker voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1958, Stephen M. Young ran for the Senate against the incumbent Bricker. Bricker seemed invincible, but Young capitalized on widespread public opposition to the proposed "right to work" amendment to Ohio's constitution, which Bricker had endorsed. Few thought that Young, 70 at the time, could win; even members of his own party had doubts, particularly Ohio's other senator, Democrat Frank J. Lausche. In an upset amid a national Democratic trend, Young defeated Bricker by 52 to 48 percent. Bricker then retired from public life.

Professional life and death

In 1945, Bricker founded the Columbus law firm now known as Bricker & Eckler. The firm now has additional offices in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, Cincinnati, Dayton, Marietta, Barnesville, and Lebanon. It is now one of the ten largest firms in the state of Ohio. The firm has maintained an office and conference room in Bricker's honor in its Columbus office featuring memorabilia from Bricker's political career. He was married to the former Harriet Day. After leaving the Senate, John Bricker resumed the practice of law. He died in Columbus on March 22, 1986 at the age of 92 and is interred at Green Lawn Cemetery.

Miscellaneous

* Bricker Hall on the Ohio State University campus is named for him. The building currently serves as the home of many of the university administrative units, including the Office of the Board of Trustees and President Dr. Michael V. Drake. Bricker was a member of the OSU Board of Trustees from 1948 to 1969. * The Bricker Building at the Ohio Expo Center (site of the annual

Ohio State Fair The Ohio State Fair is one of the largest state fairs in the United States, held in Columbus, Ohio during late July through early August. As estimated in a 2011 economic impact study conducted by Saperstein & Associates; the State Fair contribute ...

and many other events) is named for him. * The John W. Bricker Federal Building in downtown Columbus is named for him. * In Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel ''

The Man in the High Castle ''The Man in the High Castle'' (1962), by Philip K. Dick, is an alternative history novel wherein the Axis Powers won World War II. The story occurs in 1962, fifteen years after the end of the war in 1947, and depicts the political intrigues b ...

'', set in an alternate timeline, Bricker succeeded John Nance Garner as the 33rd President of the United States in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

. * Bricker intervened in the 1956 deportation of Dr. Peter Tchen, father of

Tina Tchen Christina M. Tchen (born January 25, 1956) is an American lawyer and a former official in the President Barack Obama Administration. She was CEO of Time's Up from 2019 to 2021, when she resigned following allegations that she provided legal ai ...

, former Time's Up CEO and Chief of Staff to Michelle Obama, by introducing a bill to grant him permanent residency.

References

External links

Former Capitol Policeman Shoots at Senator
- Ghosts of DC blog

* ttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18793/john-w_-bricker Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Bricker, John William 1893 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American politicians Burials at Green Lawn Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio) Republican Party governors of Ohio Lawyers from Columbus, Ohio Military personnel from Ohio Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni Ohio Attorneys General Ohio State Buckeyes baseball players Ohio State University trustees Old Right (United States) People from Grandview Heights, Ohio People from Madison County, Ohio Politicians from Columbus, Ohio Republican Party (United States) vice presidential nominees Republican Party United States senators from Ohio United States Army chaplains United States Army officers Candidates in the 1944 United States presidential election 1944 United States vice-presidential candidates World War I chaplains 20th-century American lawyers American anti-communists 20th-century American clergy United States Army personnel of World War I